The perpetually sad car beard man and two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso will go from running the saddest car in F1 to competing in the most under-appreciated race in motorsports, the Indy 500.

Alonso will be skipping the Monaco Grand Prix to make the race, which is fine. It’s fine. What is he missing, really? A 38th-place finish? Whatever. Give Indy a shot.

McLaren says in that it will be running a car, but admits “the car will be run by the Andretti Autosport team,” and it will be a Dallara DW12 chassis like the rest of the field. If you’re having dreams of how Lotus came to Indy back in the ‘60s with a totally new chassis design, dash them now.

(I’m sorry for sounding jaded. This is really cool.)

It will be Honda-powered, which has some synergy with McLaren’s Honda-powered F1 effort. Well, ‘powered’ is a strong word.

“I’m immensely excited that I’ll be racing in this year’s Indy 500, with McLaren, Honda and Andretti Autosport,” Alonso presumably mumbled through the press conference. Whether or not he’s excited about his F1 car is, uh, a conclusion that you’re going to have to draw yourself.